On August 30, 2011, I had a carpe diem moment. I had just acquired my first set of aid hooks and was desperately wanting to push myself in a crash course on hooking. Hooking seemed like pretty scary stuff, so I needed to work myself in stat for some climbs I have hopes to do.

Now, for those that don't know me, some might say that I have no shame when coming up with new & effective ways to train.

Drytooling at Skull Rock on the hardest line that I've found to TR so far.

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How to warm up over an hour for a 2 hr gym climbing session - and for alpine climbing on the weekend!

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Sometimes I can even talk others into joining me with my crazy ideas.

Pinar learning the value of pre-rigging a heavy pack to be shed in the event of falling into a crevasse. Not fun to prussic!

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I also can't resist seizing chances to document unusual training regimens for an excuse to practice multimedia productions, such as obsessive Photoshop annotations or productions in Premier.PG Presidio Offwidth

So an idea came to me one day at work to bike up into the north Berkeley hills during my lunch hour and practice hooking in a rather unusual way.

It was at this time that I started getting tired. I had foolishly neglected to bring my daisies, and now I was precariously balanced on the steep wall with gravity pulling me back toward the abyss.

Tiring out, I need to find a rest! But without daisies, how can I get relief?

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Gotta improvise fast! Here's an idea!

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That ought to do it!

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At last! A hands free rest!

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However, my improvised rest became too relaxing, as I began to doze off.

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I'd better not fall asleep on my solo ascent, though. It could be dangerous, and onlookers might become even more concerned. The last thing I need now is an unnecessary rescue.

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Rested, I gradually warmed back up to the rigors of the route.

It was good I rested, because here was the hooking crux of the route!

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Testing the questionable hook placement.

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I'm still not sure about this. It seems pretty unstable to traverse onto . . .

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Stay, hook! Stay!

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Fortunately the thin placement held. By now I was nearly halfway across the route, and the moves were getting routine as the exposure eased off.

In order to work the mental training of the terror of extended hooking, I needed to improvise with my imagination. Don't fall here!

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But then things in my mind took a turn for the worst. This was getting to be too much . . .

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I figured the rebellion of my mind was a result of me bonking. It was now well past 1pm and I had yet to actually eat lunch during my lunch hour! I needed to refuel, stat!

Fortunately I was able to get some provisions dropped off for my solo traverse. However, the run-in with the authorities almost ended my climb prematurely.

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I appealed to the authorities, giving a heartfelt defense of my lofty goals in hopes that they would allow me to continue reaching for the sky. Fortunately my explanation of what I was doing worked, as the concerned grounds manager eventually relented, saying "eh. I guess this is Berkeley."

And so, refreshed from lunch, I pressed on with renewed vigor.

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It was getting late in the hour, so I rushed on. Time was short to finish the route!

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Smooth hooking carried me across the wall.

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I'm getting the hang of this now!

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Nearing the end, the route began to get tight and awkward.

As hooking options diminished, I had to take care

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A slip of mere inches could spell failure for the solo traverse

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It appears that I'm about to run out of viable hooking options. I'm going to have to suck it up and move back to free climbing soon.

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Class 3 mantel to finish the route. Perhaps one day with smaller aiders the route can be pushed further, but for now the early exit will have to do . . .

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Fortunately the descent from Geochronology wall was straightforward walkoff. I needed to get back to the office!

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Special thanks to Ryan Pintar, who was willing to go along with all of this silliness and take pictures.

Next time, take a geologist's hammer, so that if necessary you can pass yourself off as a devoted scientist, taking samples. Maybe blabber about doing geoisotope dating of the chips, as part of your research into the movement of tectonic plates and how that affects the San Andreas fault in that area.

But, I think you slung your hooks backwards. The webbing should come out the front of the hook against the rock to pull the hook into the rock.

Yeah, I couldn't quite tell which was the best way to sling them. The way they are currently slung is pulling the hook out more, but pushing the tripod legs in better too, which maybe was making them more stable for traversing? I'll try traversing the wall again with them slung the other way for comparison.

It seems to go at 5.7-5.8, with no need for a crash pad. What's fun is to turn the corner into the parking lot, as the entire wall is twice as long as the section I hooked! I save that section for night, though. Also fun to do with a pack & boots on :-)

V, I never told you how I trained for ice climbing in the weight gym when I was living in Brooklyn, did I? >:-)

Please DO tell.

Since you are coming back with re-tied hooks maybe I can join you and we could make it into a more enjoyable outing. Climbing big wall aid route in a push is no easy task. Maybe we should bring a portaledge and some beers. Vertical camping, drink a cobra.

It sounds completely rational if you follow my line of thinking, but seems absolutely insane if you walk into a gym and see someone doing this (especially if you don't know what ice climbing is!):

1. There are some barbell exercises I read about in some training books for ice climbing where you work on the wrist-flick motion with your forearms. One book recommended doing this standing, with the barbell above your head to get the full swinging effect with the shoulders & biceps.

However, this exercise only works the pure strength nature but does little for coordination. Plus barbells keep the weight pretty close to the handle, so this mostly works the shoulders & biceps.

2. I replaced the barbells with my ice tools, and duct-taped 1/2 liter water bottles filled with water on the picks to add extra weight to the heads. Arms cocked back overhead, I worked on initiating the swing on each arm, going for 60 reps or so on each side. Weighting the heads really helps as it is much harder to do the wrist flick, which really works the forearms in initiating one!

3. I did this in front of a mirror so that I could make sure that my tools were tracking properly even as I tired out, which made for a great stabilizing exercise. Once this got easier I also stood on my toes on a platform to make it even more realistic of working body tension and balance from the front points through the swing.

BTW, I made sure to explain my idea and get permission from the gym BEFORE I brought in my tools and started swinging. Surprisingly they let me do this!

Since you are coming back with re-tied hooks maybe I can join you and we could make it into a more enjoyable outing. Climbing big wall aid route in a push is no easy task. Maybe we should bring a portaledge and some beers. Vertical camping, drink a cobra.

I've seen people practicing their portaledge setups off the 2nd floor Terrace of Evans Hall on the Berkeley Campus, which looks much better for the outing. Apparently UCPD wasn't patrolling the area too tightly or just didn't care. :-D

Actually I was just talking with a friend and found out he was the one I saw setting up his porta-ledge on Evans Hall.

"We did have a campus grounds guy stop to talk to us, but
strangely he wasn't upset and left us alone. Another time we did
rappel practice on and near Evans with a large CHAOS group, and the
police did come but didn't stop us."

My bent prescription glasses were enough - they were already bent/skewed from the rigors of trad and could take the hook :-) I only blew a hook off twice on a prior attempt at the wall, neither was a surprise, and neither one hit me, though they were explosive!

It's probably a safe protocol to keep your head low & aside when aid testing, but once you've committed to standing on the aider, you're probably safe unless you do something dumb :-) Stomping hard on the aider seems to work OK if you hold the hook in your hand to keep it from bouncing off the ledge, since holding it lightly with your hand seems to do nothing to keep it from popping off the ledge.

Fortunately I was in a static stance then. The worse that could have happened is the hook could have popped and landed me on my rump :-)

Actually I will give you this bit of advice if I may. That hook could have popped and put your eye or eyes out. Be careful wearing glasses and hooking, and or bounce testing anything while wearing glasses.

Be careful wearing glasses and hooking, and or bounce testing anything while wearing glasses.

Not that I see them as safety glasses, but wouldn't wearing modern glasses be safer, rather than more dangerous, for protecting the eyes? I emphasize modern in that I'm not aware of newer lenses shattering easily.

I'm just wondering since for aid climbing I could do without wearing glasses, so if they are a hazard, I might as well put them away for that sort of climbing.

I can't answer that. I would check into it though, and see if your lens is a tempered lens. I was blessed with great vision so please forgive me if this is a non issue. Just saw glass, eye, and hook all in a close range of each other, and thought that would suck if hook hit glass and glass went into eye, not to mention high speed hook.

are you thinking of going back for an all Tri cam ascent... er, I mean traverse?!

I think too many of the joints are too shallow & flaring to do a full traverse on only tricams. Then again I wasn't looking for a continuous string of discrete tricam placements . . . challenge accepted! ;-)

(Maybe if I get in trouble I can limit myself to bat hooking the small holes in the volcanic rock to keep it interesting)